The Dareku Civil War (Not-Daleks refight the ECW!)

[Macrossmartin]

850 years after the first Great Genomic Schism split the Dareku Empire, the tensions between the Royalist and Puritan Courts finally exploded into unrestrained, all-out war.

Throughout the galaxy, whole worlds and civilisations cowered in terror while the Dareku unleashed incredible engines of fury against each other, rending entire star systems down to ash and rubble. All time and space seemed to echo with their terrible battlecry of "Eradicate! Eradicate!!"

But after the mightiest of the hell-machines had spent themselves, the civil war raged on, for the Dareku are not inclined toward negotiation, especially with those kindred who have 'strayed' from Genetic Truth. War became more personal, as armies glided across the battlefields in massed ranks, as in the ancient days of the Dareku Conquest. New factions formed and fought, with Dareku Republicans and Covenanters adding their hatred to the fray.   

Today, there seems no end in sight to the civil war. The Royalist King-construct has gained new sources of gene-matter, and the gestation tanks of the Royalists spill out abominations to fill the casings of the Dareku Mobility Machines. The Blessed and Pure Dareku of Parliament maintain their numbers by salvaging their dead, who are reborn to fight again and again.

Covenanter Dareku have come to regard themselves as charged with leading their race to godhood, for, they believe, the Dareku are superior to all things, including the divine. Before they can war upon the heavens, however, they must destroy the heathens of the rival factions.

Only the Republicans, who hold that all Dareku are equal, stay true to the ancient Dareku creed that all other lifeforms must be eradicated. Thankfully, they too are caught up in the fratricidal chaos, and have little energy to waste upon 'lesser' races.

The galaxy watches this, the greatest conflict in its history, knowing it promises only a future in which there is only war.

Olipook Schnororbutti, Arch-archivist, Beeblebrox College

Greetings, all!

A very nasty bout of 'Flu laid me low over the past few weeks. (Alas, for an immune system without missing lymph nodes!) But as I coughed, sniffled, sneezed and wheezed away the days, a hankering to revisit some past ideas resurfaced, if mostly as mere distractions for a sleep-deprived mind.

One of these was a vague intention to sculpt some Dalek-inspired figures and pit them against each other in terrible conflict. I already have Dalek armies build from Character Building's range of Dr Who figures, and I adore those pepperpots, but I wanted to do something a bit further from Whovian canon than I'd attempted before.

Searching for inspiration across the Dalek Pathweb, I rediscovered this wonderful selection of thumbnail concepts by Niklas Jansson of Android Arts. (I believe these were ideas for a Dr Who fancomic he'd been contemplating.):



Niklas Jansson points out on his blog that these designs bear some resemblance to the 'Dareku' of the Japanese adaptation of Whittaker's novel Dr Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks; both have big, 'deodorant roller' hemispheres on their undersides, which I can imagine are exactly what a Dalek is hiding under its skirt (ooh-er, Doctor!) 



It's an interesting look, and so, suitably inspired I started pushing vectors around. After a few hours, out popped this little fellow...



I really like the 'exposed' anti-grav gubbins of this design. I imagine it can 'plug in' to larger constructs, such as fighters, tanks, etc, or just a large fender for a more traditional Dalek look.

I've kept the 11 panels of the traditional Dalek's skirt, and tied parts together with a simple inset line-and-circle design which you can see on the shoulder slats and the front of the head dome as well as other places.

Story-wise, this all takes place in an alternative Who-verse, in which the Daleks (Dareku) have progressed their obsession with genetics to extremes, splitting into orthodox, quasi-religious cults who brook no parley with each other. War quickly consumes the factions' arsenals of planet-cracking super-weapons, and now they are reduced to meeting in open battle, sucker-to-sucker. A sort of Apocalypse of the Dareku.

Given the English Civil War overtones, I'm tempted to arm the Dareku with suitably high-tech analogies of weapons of that conflict. Photonic Pikes and Las-lances, maybe?

But that'll be for later. In the meantime, I have to plan out how many Dareku variants I'll sculpt, and print. Each faction will have details and styles unique to them, but the parts will all 'mix-n-match' should I choose.

I don't want to go too crazy, so maybe 50-odd per side will be my uppermost limit. We'll have to see if I really want to paint all those hemispheres... 

More to see when I've more to show! 

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Those are some neat designs.  I can practically hear the poor 1960s era SFX guys complaining about them being impossible to fulfill on the shoestring budget the BBC gave them. 

[jetengine]

I absolutely love the batshit insanity of all this!

I would pay good money for these sculpts.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I suspect the answer is yes, but you have seen Mechmaster's Second Empire site, right?

https://www.mechmaster.co.uk/cg-lair/daleks/secemphome.htm

[Macrossmartin]

Those are some neat designs.  I can practically hear the poor 1960s era SFX guys complaining about them being impossible to fulfill on the shoestring budget the BBC gave them. 

Shawcraft Models, who made the original, full-size Dalek props could have made these, but I don't think there would have been a safe way to hover them about the studio with a human operator inside!

Yep, seen Mechmaster's wonderful site. It's a major source of inspiration, and the webcomics are some of the best Dalek stories ever written, in my opinion.

[Macrossmartin]

I absolutely love the batshit insanity of all this!

I would pay good money for these sculpts.

I might offer the STL files via Wargaming 3D when I get my store there open. Bit worried I'm flying too close to BBC patents, though!

[TripleBackflip]

I'm a massive Dalek fan too, there's a nice Paradigm Dalek miniature next to me as I write this, You've got to make Imperial Darekus, they got such a bad time in the Main Mechmaster comic, they need some good stuff to happen to them!

[Easy E]

I like the reference to Cybermen with the robo-man...... I am no Whovian, but I seem to recall that Darleks originally created the Cybermen before they became enemies?  Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Plynkes]

The Daleks did create the Robomen, but they aren't the same thing as Cybermen. The Cybermen's creation had nothing to do with the Daleks, unless they have retconned it so.

[Plynkes]

Robomen were robotised human slaves created when the Daleks conquered Earth.

[Easy E]

Thanks all for clarifying.

[Macrossmartin]

A quick update:

The Dareku had a quick n' dirty test print today. Successful, but it needs some tweaks to the printer settings. But— (switches to best Davros voice) — so begins the creation of an invincible army of MY DAREKU!



(Pardon the rubbish phone camera pic...!) 

Here's a render of the parts breakdown. You can also see the High Mobility Stabiliser Platform (the fender) that can be attached for a more Dalek-y look. But I think I'm liking the hovering hemisphere look better. (Definitely no hunched-over Dalek operator inside! I've personally done that, and it is Hell on one's thigh muscles!)



I've posed the arms and guns in 3 erm... poses... to add some variety to the Dareku. There also also 3 styles of head each with different speech indicators for the same reason.

I'm hoping to get some production printing done this weekend, and have a few dozen of this model ready for the painting table. Surprisingly, 8 of these as a combined print shouldn't take more than 2 hours printing time on my Mars 2 Pro.

So, hopefully a big update next week!

[Easy E]

Look at that.  It is not even all wibbly-wobbly like I thought might happen.

[TripleBackflip]

It looks really nice, my only question is how do they stay standing up? I assume they're gonna be on bases.

[Commander Roj]

It’s an angry Weeble!



https://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/weebles

“Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”